Hiring a BPO Service Provider: Is My Business Ready For Scaling?

Hiring a BPO Service Provider: Is My Business Ready For Scaling?

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It’s every entrepreneur’s dilemma: scaling the business to the next level. This often means expansion and the potential for bigger revenue. It also means more costs, more involved management. Business without risks is hardly worthwhile, and an efficient BPO service provider can help you with the legwork. There’s still the nagging question, though. How do you know if you’re ready for deeper waters?
This thought keeps most entrepreneurs up at night, and in retrospect, there are those who decided prematurely, failing after the fact. But then again, no guts no glory. It’s just a matter of ensuring the risks are manageable and well worth the payoff.

Priorities, Priorities

You might be surprised the first consideration should be personal, not professional. It also ties in with your decision to hire a BPO service provider to lighten the burden. One of the goals of scaling is for personal growth, to accommodate your personal priorities. It may be family, a newly discovered hobby, or investing more time in charity; your expanding business should make room for any pet project that adds value to your life.

Plot A Manageable Time Frame

Divide your long-term goals in a series of short time frames, to keep your scaling efforts manageable. If your immediate expansion takes a year to complete, what are your specific goals? Increase your core staff from 20 to 50? Branch out to a new location? Include a new service offering? Keep your scaling periods short, doable, and feasible.

Success with your start-up calls for celebration, and the best way to do it is to integrate your personal and professional goals. You’re the one who calls the shots after all, and the best reward for work well done is to improve work-life balance.

Here are some points to keep in mind before you hire a BPO service provider:

Scalability should be part of your business model by default. Now is as good a time as any if you’ve yet to plan ahead. Be a visionary and build your business for the long run, anticipating demand from an expanding customer base. How do you know if you’ve successfully scaled the business? You’re not scrambling to accommodate the flow of new prospects, for one thing.

Dig deep in your foundation. A simplified business model is more scalable, allowing you to transition with minimal waste. Logistics is an immediate concern in expanding businesses, something which should
already be resolved.

It’s counter-intuitive to think your human resource isn’t a priority in expansion, but this should be true to a certain extent in a scalable business. Recruitment and retention is still essential, but your business should be stable enough to weather (or transcend) the impact of any employee’s input. This is where a BPO service provider is most feasible; you’re able to focus on facilitating the expansion when someone else handles the details.

Eventually your business should be established enough to mitigate bumps along the way, even serious shakedowns. You’ll notice the decision to scale a business starts with your personal priorities; once you have these established and hedged, you won’t be fazed as much with setbacks and missteps.

3 Core Values of Excellent Staff Leasing Service

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Over the years, there has been enormous growth in the outsourcing industry, creating plenty of job opportunities worldwide. Due to the rise of large, mid-sized and small companies, selecting the right staff leasing service for your firm can be a difficult task. Of course, aside from considering the cost, the leasing company’s experience, and its expertise in providing client services should also factors to consider.
Trimming down the characteristics of an excellent staff leasing service can be challenging; there’s more than a handful of factors you should consider. These criteria aren’t exclusive to staff leasing; whether you’re looking for Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), or Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), this list can help you assess the company that you wish to partner with.

1. A  global view of staff leasing:

From day one, a good provider develops and implements a staff leasing model that is designed not just for their region, but also for other countries and timezones. It usually starts in the home country, and then exported or expanded. Following the core model, this leads to each region trying to improve productivity and lower costs. To ensure consistent service to business units, a company head is (by default) responsible for all global operations.

2. Consistent, progressive staff training:  

Even with the constant availability and accessibility of technology it’s still the employees’ performance that enhances customer experience. Successful firms invest on training and creating programs that would improve employee competence and confidence. In addition, these firms also make an effort to recognize top performers to boost morale, motivating each employee to continually develop their skills.

3. Organizational development, in scope and scale:

A staff leasing company works hard to expand not just their geographic scope, but also the range and depth of their service offerings. Companies with global mindsets are not limited by timezones and borders; there’s focus on the possibility of progress and expansion. Aside from these, the common priority is in developing the three primary components of staff leasing service: people, process, and technology.
Choosing a staff leasing service shouldn’t be a challenge if you consider a company who shares your priorities. Narrow down your picks, and choose a service that’s as into the small details as it is focused on the bigger perspectives.

The Most Successful Entrepreneurs Possess These Three Traits

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There’s one trait common among entrepreneurs, successful or otherwise: there’s a willingness to accept risks. The prospects in business either turn out great or sour, and outcomes depend on numerous variables. Most of these variables are difficult, even impossible to control. However, in face of uncertainties, the only constant you can control is how you respond to situations. Can you recall the last time your business was at crucial point?

It’s no surprise your response to uncertainties and outcomes is an indicator of success (or failure). It takes at least a month to start or break a habit, and kudos to those who have the resolve of a US Navy Seal. If you’ve yet to develop the traits of a hardened businessman, adopt the following traits as your priorities:

1. Focus on solutions, not problems

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by roadblocks along your path to success. You probably know by now being entrepreneur isn’t a cakewalk, far from it. The same tenacity that got you this far should tide you in for long haul, right? It’s healthy to anticipate problems on the horizon, but you can only deal with these when within reach. Cross the bridge when you get there.

What to do when the problem is up ahead, then? Consider these as challenges paired with rewards. Remember, the biggest companies started small; it’s often an uphill climb when you start from the very bottom. Regardless of the terrain and the steepness of your ascent, treat every obstacle as opportunity for growth. Your most rewarding solutions are gleaned from the most hard-fought battles; find that silver lining.

2. Keep investing in feasible ventures

You’ll be tempted to stay in your comfort zone when you’ve achieved moderate success. After all, when you have more than enough, it’s as good as any reason to lie back and reap the rewards of efforts. If this is where you are now, that dreaded success plateau, then you should set your sights higher, look to Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson. Their approach on progress should knock you back to your senses.

The most successful barely even live within their means. Most spend for only the best in basic necessities, investing the bulk of money in a new venture. This seems so counter-intuitive for non-entrepreneurs, splurging on rewards as soon as there’s surplus to spend. A successful businessman shouldn’t have an end game; there’s always a new venture to invest or expand. Instead of spending your money on stuff and experience, put the bulk of it to work.

3. Never stop learning

The day you think there’s nothing left to learn is the day you never will. Often, it’s a serious drawback that knocks the senses, makes you realize you really haven’t figured it all out. If there’s one thing you should splurge on, it has to be on your personal development. If you’re taking a vacation, learn something from the getaway you can apply in business.

Having an open mind goes a long way; there’s always something to learn from every situation, every person you meet. Learning is also sacrifice, choosing to spend leisure time on personal improvement. Progress is appreciated on a day-to-day basis, but is undeniable years in retrospect. Like they say, you can fill a bucket with water in one go, or drop by drop. Fill yours at your own best pace.

Running a business is like running a marathon; those who have what it takes to endure, eventually succeed. Mind the setbacks enough to resolve these; remember, nothing is permanent in business. The law of averages confirm that you try often enough and you’re bound to succeed. The odds are eventually in your favor.

Elsewhere on this blog:

5 Habits of Effective Leaders

Dear Small Business Owner: You Also Need Staff Leasing Service

Is Customer Satisfaction The Goal, No Questions Asked? Rethinking The “Customer Is Always Right” Policy

3 Things You Need To Know About The Millennials Market

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Can you still remember music before the mp3 format? How about life before Facebook? What seems like the distant past actually happened a few decades ago; Millennials were the first generation to enjoy the perks of future tech. Now there’s something new released every month, rolling over the horizon with the craziest features and innovations. New technologies hardly surprise anymore. What will they think of next?

It’s a mistake to ignore the market of Millennials, and it can be fatal to corporations and small businesses alike. The market is insatiable, and this is a good thing because there’s always potential for growth. The challenge is in learning to adapt to an ever-adapting generation. If your business is leveraging staff leasing service to streamline operations, it’s likely the team you hire is mostly made up of Millennials. If you’re into consumer tech and applications, Millennials will surely carve a significant piece of your market.

How do you prime your business so it appeals to Millennials? Thankfully, Generation Y has three reliable characteristics you can leverage:

1. Millennials Love Anything Tech

This is an understatement, but must be mentioned. The generation grew up with technology that instantly gratifies needs and wants. You can purchase products without leaving your home, and you can watch anything in high-resolution on a five-inch screen. Recent surveys confirm that Millennials adore technology, they’ll flock towards anything that has barely any semblance of a cult following.

Engage your market where they gather. Millennials prefer mobile devices over desktop and laptop computers, so your brand should be visible, accessible on small screens. Anticipate new technologies like Google Glass and Oculus, and consider how you can leverage innovations to spread word about your brand.

2. Millennials Love to Socialize Online

Facebook should merely scratch the surface of your social media strategy. If you really want to earn street credibility at social media, scrape as much good reputation as you can on all platforms. Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat; there’s plenty more platforms to mention. You can’t underestimate the influence of a timely Twitter hashtag, or a Facebook post that for some fluke of reason goes viral.

The point is to approach your social media strategy the same way Millennials do: try everything until you find something that works. However, you need choose platforms that complements your campaign. What works on Instagram may not work on Pinterest, and hashtags don’t have as much impact on Facebook as they do on Twitter.

3. Millennials Love to Keep It Real

Case in point: Dove’s Real Beauty campaign appeals to women of all ages, but especially to Millennials feeling the pressure of unrealistic expectations. Dove utilized every media platform to push a relevant advocacy, which is also directly tied to a solid brand. Dove has become the brand synonymous to real beauty. You only need one great idea to start a great campaign.

Tug at your market’s heartstrings or pick its brain, whatever appeals to authenticity, social responsibility, or identity will catch on. You’ll know you’re onto something good when your campaign is growing on the social media channels.

Consider current and upcoming generations in your business strategy. Chances are most of the people on your team belong to the Y and Z generations, strong indicators the next generations should be priorities in your business development.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Dear Small Business Owner: You Also Need Staff Leasing Service

Your Post-Sale Strategy: Gaining Leads From Your Customers

Content Management Systems for New Businesses

Branding Your Business Is Building Your Identity

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How would you describe your company as a brand? Branding is crucial to all businesses, but especially to start-ups staking their niche on the industry. Survey the history of any successful business and you’ll notice its brand can evolve, but is often identified by one defining value.

Your branding is your identity in the industry, also the market’s perception of your business. This will set you apart in the face of tight competition, keep you relevant when the market is shaky, volatile, unpredictable. Have you ever wondered why the best brands are able to charge more for products and services? It’s because they’ve developed deep connection with their markets, a relationship based on brand trust.

If you’re still figuring out your company brand, here are a handful of guidelines to consider:

1. Defining your brand. This has everything to do with your product or service, as well as your niche in the industry. What’s your target market and demographics? Pinpoint the particular appeal of your business to your customers. How is your business set apart from the competition? Is it customer service, product quality, consistency? Your brand is a set of character traits that promote your business, something that deeply relates to your customer base.

2. Think of your brand as a person, with quirks, preferences, character. Many business brands are inseparable from their founders: think Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook. Is the CEO the face and embodiment of your business brand? Some also humanize their business as a brand, ascribing mission, vision, and purpose as characteristic traits. Does the company have its own set of heroes and mentors? Clarify your core values if you want to flesh out your business brand.

3. Build relationships with your market. Nothing spoils a brand than a string of empty promises. If you’re going to announce the release of a revolutionary product, make sure expectations are met upon launch date. In short, don’t sit on a bubble that will eventually pop. Building trust with your customers means you respect their preferences and expectations, ensuring you’ll deliver to any guarantee you’ll ever make.

Building a brand requires patience and consistency, and you might stumble over roadblocks and potholes along the way. However, you’re sure to gain traction, so long as you stay true to your company’s core values.

Elsewhere on this blog:

5 Habits of Effective Leaders

Is Customer Satisfaction The Goal, No Questions Asked? Rethinking The “Customer Is Always Right” Policy

Boost Sales through Product/Service Promotion

Content Management Systems for New Businesses

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Start-ups have everything to gain with a company website. Smaller companies can get by with simple yet personalized look, one that enough about the company and what it’s about. However, there’s only enough time to spend in a day, and there’s always someone who’ll take care of portions of operations, giving you time to ensure everything falls into place.

What these businesses need is a content management system (CMS), a computer application that supports the creation and modification of digital content using a simple interface. A CMS usually supports multiple users, working in a collaborative environment and features, among others. This includes web-based publishing, format management, history editing and version control, indexing, search, and retrieval.

An Efficient Way to Run a Company Website

A CMS is a great tool for first-time businesses to put their work out there. Essentially with a CMS, they already have a working website that can publish, edit, and modify content as well as maintain it from a centralized user-friendly interface. This and more reasons have put CMS on the map as a popular way to start up a site.

Ready Design and Usability

A major advantage of using a CMS separation is its design and functionality. In the case of starting from scratch, there is a need to set up the code and design for the site itself, and that can quite be demanding especially for those who aren’t experts in that field. But with a CMS, there’s already the site set up; the coding and design is already in place. There can be changes made in the appearance, such as the use of themes, but nothing that will risk disrupting the established look. This gives the business a site that is uniformly clean but with more than a hint of personality. It can also concentrate on content, adding, formatting, and editing whatever’s necessary to convey its message across.

Content Regularly Updated

One more advantage of choosing a CMS is the possibility of a quick content turnaround. For up-and-comers, updates are a must. There needs to be a constant stream of news and fresh content to haul in views and customers. And building a site from scratch can be a serious hindrance, with all the design and coding matters to look into. A CMS, however, handles these really well. Because there is little need to worry about the technical aspects of the site, much focus can be pooled for the content itself. The people behind the business can freely update as regularly as possible, and with accuracy and uniformity, too, thanks to the content editing functions. A site made using a CMS can be a lively one, indeed, and not because it’s a design work in progress.

Search Engine Friendly

Another advantage, still, with having a CMS for site building is its SEO-friendliness. New businesses need to get themselves out and heard in the tough, vast world that is the Internet. They need to appear on a search engine whenever a word of interest is being searched, and they need their content to be an easy work of navigation. With site building from scratch, there is the possibility of that function not being present or usable, and that can be a huge blow to them. The CMS, on the other hand, has evolved over the years for that. Most programs of this kind come with SEO-friendly functions such as custom page titles, metadata, adjustable URLs, and helper plugins. The businesses need not toil much over getting on the front page of Google anymore; with the CMS will take them there faster.

Content management systems come in many names: Joomla, WordPress, Mambo, Drupal, PhpBB, and VBulletin are some of the most widely used. And for businesses who don’t have the time or the expertise needed to work with one themselves, there are outsourcing companies who offer that as part of their line of services. They can be assured that an outsourced CMS-made site will have an air of professionalism: uncluttered, informative, and engaging.

Your business can definitely turn to the CMS for help. With it, you’ll have all the essentials covered, and the site will still speak much about your company, your product/service, and your team.

Elsewhere on this blog:

The Perks of Staff Leasing QA

Your Post-Sale Strategy: Gaining Leads From Your Customers

Do You Want to Grow Your Clientele? Work on Your Retention Rate

Staff Leasing, Customized to Meet Your Needs

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There’s one reason why businesses turn to staff leasing to cover for operations: the variety of specializations available. Different companies have different goals, and BPO companies adapt using different approaches that would effectively help their clients achieve their goals. With a plethora of outsourcing companies active on the international market, businesses would want a partner that shares in their visions, and will seamlessly work together to deliver high-quality goods and/or services.

Staff Leasing Keeps You Up to Speed with Industry Standards

With the fast-paced growth of the Internet and technology, it’s understandable companies would want to be on top of everything, will try anything that could make transactions and operations both effective and efficient. Sometimes, though, they don’t have the time or the people who are up to par with the tasks needed to be completed, and that’s when staff leasing comes in. Professional staff leasing companies would be well-versed with the newer systems and applications that can cover back-office and customer support.

Company executives want to maximize these benefits, so they can focus on other parts of the business that would boost company growth. Unfortunately, when the company turns to some staff leasing companies for help, they run the risk of limiting themselves instead. Companies should then make sure that the staff leasing company they seek out will adjust to the company’s needs and wants, not the other way around.

Customizing Your Leased Staff to Fit

Does the leasing company have the specialized and professional pool of talents that can meet the standards of your business? Can these talents dedicate the time and effort that will make the project/campaign successful? Will the leased team contribute to the overall growth of the company? Leasing companies should be able to help curate the perfect team who can finish the job done within the specified time.

The company should also take into account the facilities a staff leasing company has to offer. Is it properly outfitted and updated with the means to deliver the results required? As mentioned earlier, the growth of the Internet and relevant technologies comes with expectations. Staffing companies are expected to have the proper equipment and resources that that enhance talents.

The cost of leasing staff for certain projects or operations shouldn’t outweigh the benefits of an outsourced team’s offerings. Leasing companies fully understand the value of efficient operations, so by being able to provide a customized solutions service for the company, both parties can reach a point of agreement that would be advantageous for everyone involved.

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The Perks of Staff Leasing QA

Dear Small Business Owner: You Also Need Staff Leasing Service

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Is Customer Satisfaction The Goal, No Questions Asked? Rethinking The “Customer Is Always Right” Policy

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Is the customer always right? This is running policy in most businesses, and in many situations, it protects customers from unfair or unsatisfactory service. Customers may be the lifeblood of business, but sticking to this unwritten rule can open a can of worms that affects employee morale. As an entrepreneur, you carefully consider which side you’ll take in disputes, between employees and irate customers; customer satisfaction is a primary goal of business, but it’s far from absolute.
If you’re still on the fence whether you should side with employees in an unfair dispute, here are three good reasons that should help you decide in your people’s favor:

1. Siding with customers (when they’re wrong) puts a dent on your employees’ morale.

You’re actually doing your people a disservice; even if the intent is to appease a disgruntled customer, it shows your distrust in your employees. It’s about weighing the tradeoff of giving customers what they want, against the possibility your people will lose confidence in you after your lapse of judgment. Diplomacy is crucial in conflict resolution, and you can build the concerned employee as you side with the customer in a complaint. Keep in mind that lip service to the customers’ dilemma only benefits your business for the short term.

2. Abrasive customers shouldn’t always have the upper hand.

They say that when you give someone an inch, the same person will demand a mile. Perception is a fickle thing, and the last thing you want to be perceived as is a patsy. You’re probably thinking of companies who buckled under the pressure of (negative) customer feedback, pulling products, doing recalls, offering refunds and rebates to compensate. The point is you need to establish your boundaries and protect it. Your front-line employees bear the brunt of the abuse, and the least you can do is call a bad customer out, on the spot.

3. Side with enough bad customers, and soon your employees will dish out sub-par service.

This could be out of disappointment or disapproval, expressed in ways short of a mutiny. Employees need to know their service and judgment is valued in the company; that’s why yo hired them in the first place. Sure, there are times when an employee is clearly on the wrong side of the dispute, but what about the gray situations and you need to investigate further? Bosses fail when they pick the customer’s side in effort to save face; it’s likely disputes and complaints will only increase, as discontentment spreads among the ranks.
The secret to good customer service is good employee morale; invest in your employees and they will pay it forward with excellent service. Consider your customers and employees as equal partners to your company’s success; ensure both are satisfied and the effort will pay off as you move along.

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The Perks of Staff Leasing QA

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Your Post-Sale Strategy: Gaining Leads From Your Customers

The Perks of Staff Leasing QA

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Whether it’s about maintaining a system or shared services, every company wants its products ready to market, as soon as possible. This also apply to operations within the office, in effort to achieve improved and efficient work flow. The best way to ensure products or services meet standards is through quality assurance (QA), led by a professional quality analyst.

Your dedicated team of QAs is crucial to the success of your company. However, your dilemma is in choosing between an in-house or outsource team. As much as there are benefits to keeping quality assurance operations in-house (such as confidentiality and easy monitoring), hiring a QA team through staff leasing is still the cost-effective solution.

Going beyond the usual reasoning of outsourcing a certain business operation (e.g. a cut in overhead expenses, no need for additional training, etc.), outsourcing QA affords the company additional benefits such as objectivity, high level of expertise, and all the necessary resources/infrastructure. Having a dedicated offshore also relaxes the workload of an existing in-house team, allowing you delegate tasks as you deem fit.

Objectivity

In most companies, an in-house QA team is commonly the same ones who have created the product or service itself. By employing a QA team through staff leasing, the business can perform unbiased testing, and spot errors or defects faster that an in-house QA team might overlook.

A staff leased QA team can also offer a new perspective on how to better improve the product or service, as well as suggest possible routes to advance the overall production process.

Expertise

A staff leased QA team is expected to be skilled and professional by default. Its members developed a lot of experience that enables them to take on any given tasks. The company would no longer need to worry about lack of professionalism, capability, or quality of service.

When it comes to short-term projects, a staff leased QA team is able to meet goals more effectively and efficiently, given their competence and mastery of the field. A skillful QA team can also better handle large volumes of workload faster, which makes for a better investment than having to train a full-time, in-house team (to reach that same level of productivity) from scratch.

Complete Resources/Infrastructure

In companies that cannot house or facilitate the needed resources or infrastructure for certain testing systems, a staff leased QA team is the perfect solution to the problem. Dedicated outsourced QA teams would naturally have all the tools and systems at hand, so they can readily meet the objectives of a project.

With the right staff leased QA team, the company can expect a boost in productivity—both in the QA sector and overall operations. And by letting the experts of the field manage the quality assurance of the company’s product or service, they gain not only a better sense of how to improve their operations, they’ll also effectively reduce risks that come with the business.

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Outsource Customer Service? Here's How You Negotiate With A BPO Service Provider

5 Habits of Effective Leaders

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Do you agree it takes 30 days to forge a habit? Studies show it also takes 30 days to break one. Leaders built their habits out of years of routine, and the best of the best consider these second nature. Many industry leaders started out as employees, stepping out of their comfort zones and starting out on their own. Building on scratch was never easy, but becomes easier once the right habits are formed. Whether you’re in charge of a small team or a large corporation, here are five habits common among effective leaders you should emulate:

1. They Never Stop Learning

Some people think great leader have everything figured out, that they already have knowledge to everything worth learning. In contrast, real leaders never stop learning. They let their skills expand as they go along with their experiences. They continue to explore things that might help their company, their people, and themselves. Albert Einstein put it this way: life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep moving.

2. They Value Everyone’s Time

Assuming a position of leadership does not entitle you to abuse people’s time, especially not your people. They also have their own priorities, and they need time for themselves. Effective leaders consider their workers’ time as they have their own plans for their family, friends, and extracurricular activities.

3. They Listen Carefully

Good leaders exist not only to take good care of the processes, but also to listen to employees’ concerns and issues. It’s a leader’s role to listen carefully to his people, to be aware of their feelings and whatever situation they’re in. An effective leader hears everyone’s voice, so he can understand and empathize with them.

4. They Accept Failure

Leaders exude the impression they’re perfect, but in reality they’re far from it. As you progress in your career, you’ll experience failure and disappointments. Leaders increasingly become effective when they learn how to embrace failure. They are not the type of person who will give up easily when experiencing struggles. They stay positive as they look for ways how to resolve problems. There is nothing wrong in taking risk, trying new and different things. Failure comes with trying, you just have to learn from the experience and move forward.

5. They Communicate Goals Clearly

A leader becomes effective if he knows how to make his people understand his goal. A good leader knows how to communicate well, his short-term and long-term vision. Clarity ensures there will be no confusions, securing the success of the project.

Developing the leader’s habit comes requires effort, and there are times when you’ll question if your effort is worth the payoff. You only need consider industry heavyweights like Richard Branson and Elon Musk; they reap the rewards developing the right habits ensure.

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